Inhoudsopgave van February 2016 - Guideposts

From Slaves to Leaders Celebrate Black History Month with us. Find wisdom and inspiration from prominent African-Americans, including Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at guideposts.org/blackhistory. Presidential Pets A cat, a pony and lots of dogs—for Presidents’ Day, we’re featuring some of the cute creatures who have resided at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. guideposts.org/prezpets A Dream Fulfilled In our exclusive video, Misty Copeland (page 28), the first African-American female principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, offers inspiration and insight on pursuing your dreams. guideposts.org/misty Love Is in the Air What are you doing on Valentine’s Day? Start out with inspiring quotes about love. P.S.: They’re perfect for sharing with everyone who holds a special place in your heart. guideposts.org/lovequotes…

FOR 10 YEARS MY HUSBAND, Dan, and I took care of our aging parents. First Dan’s father, Norman, moved into what had been our guest room. He needed help dealing with Parkinson’s disease and depression. He lived with us until his health became too precarious and he moved to a veterans’ facility. By then my mom’s Alzheimer’s had worsened so much that my dad couldn’t look after her on his own. So they took over Norman’s room. It was a privilege to be able to care for the people we loved most. But it was also a struggle. To avoid burnout, I had to learn to take care of my own needs. Here are five ways to care for yourself spiritually so you can be a better caregiver for your…

I THOUGHT I HAD STOPPED BEING mad at Grandpa when he died. Wrong. I’d made the two-and-a-half-hour drive to my grandparents’ farmhouse in Marietta, Oklahoma, to help Nana and my dad (their only child) plan Grandpa’s funeral. I hugged Nana hello. Her 84-year-old frame felt fragile. Not two minutes into our conversation, she turned to me and confided, “I’m so worried, Michael.” I exchanged looks with Dad. No doubt, Nana was apprehensive about a future without Grandpa. She knew she couldn’t live alone and would have to move closer to us in Edmond. She wrung her hands. “What am I going to do with the dog?” The dog? With everything else going on, that’s what Nana was worried about? As if the aforementioned dog could read my mind, yapping erupted…

February is Black History Month, so it is only fitting that we feature an African-American woman who has recently made history—the indomitable Misty Copeland, who last year became the first black ballerina named as a principal dancer for American Ballet Theatre. Her triumph did not come without obstacles, including race. We Americans have been having a conversation about race for 240 years. From the Civil War to the civil-rights movement, from Selma to Ferguson, we have struggled to understand ourselves as a multiracial society. The conversation has been heated lately as society has grown more diverse. My awakening to racism came when I was about five, accompanying my parents on a business trip to the historic Chamberlin hotel in Old Point Comfort, Virginia. While they were attending a function I…

LAST MARCH I WENT TO WASHINGTON, D.C., to give a presentation to a Department of Health and Human Services panel about the role food plays in fighting Alzheimer’s and other dementias. I’m a chef, nutritionist and cookbook author. I’ve studied how food enhances brain function, mood, memory and mental clarity. But all that research would have been nothing without my real-life experience helping my dad battle dementia. My dad, Jay Katz, ran a condimentmanufacturing business in Baltimore specializing in mayonnaise and salad dressings. Growing up, I never knew what concoction from his company’s food lab might show up on our kitchen table. One day it might be a new Roquefort dressing, the next a zesty ranch. This not only made me an adventurous eater, it inspired me to experiment in…

THREE HUNDRED FIFTY. THAT’S how many ex-servicemen and women Jim Zenner has helped get back on their feet since 2010. But what makes Jim stand out to the veterans living at the Volunteers of America shelters in Los Angeles is that he’s been right where they are. Jim hit bottom one night in February 2009. He and his wife, Annie, were in the middle of another blowup in their L.A. apartment when there came an insistent knocking at the door, loud enough to be heard over their yelling. They’d moved in just six months earlier with two sons (one was Jim’s from a previous relationship). Already neighbors had called the police several times, alarmed by their fights. This time the police brought along a social worker with the Department of…

MY HUSBAND, JEFF, AND I were putting on our coats to leave church when the head pastor called us into his office. It was winter. We’d just finished our midweek practice for the evening worship team. Pastor Brad’s office was lit by the warm glow of his desk lamp. We sat down across from him and he got straight to the point. “Jeff, I’d like to offer you the job of church janitor,” he said. “Tammy, you can help Jeff.” Pastor Brad’s expression was kind. I couldn’t hold his gaze. I stared at the floor, my face burning. It had been more than seven years since Jeff lost his job as a software programmer for a major health-care company. The company was bought out and Jeff’s position was eliminated. The…

FOR A MOMENT I STOOD IN THE doorway of our daughter’s room, watching 18-month-old Dari and my wife, Molly, playing with blocks. Dari looked so happy. I’d tried hard to turn the room into a little girl’s dreamscape when I knew she was coming. I’d refinished my old dresser, put up shelves that we filled with toys and books, even painted my first mural—a pink castle on lavender walls. I took a deep breath, walked in and sat on the floor next to her. Molly nodded at me. Be gentle, I reminded myself. Speak softly. Dari tried to stack the blocks. They tumbled over. Her brow furrowed. “Can I build a castle with you?” I asked. I picked up a block. Dari bolted across the room. She didn’t want anything…

LOVE LIST “Make a list of all the qualities you want in a husband.” That was the advice given by the dating book one of my friends had foisted on me. She also told me to pray. But there was one thing I was sure of: I wasn’t ever going to get married again. When I was 18 I’d married someone I was convinced was my soul mate. Like I really knew anything about life at age 18! Now I was 26 and divorced. Touring in a rock band all over the country. Even if I trusted my judgment when it came to love, a life on the road surely spelled doom for any marriage. So what did I have to lose? I drew up a list of 60 impossibly…

SNOOPY HITS HOME A quote from Snoopy in the November 2015 Up Side brought me tears of joy and remembrance. He said, “Keep looking up…that’s the secret of life.” It took me back to the 1960s, when I was a single working mother. One fall day, I was walking home, my eyes cast down, my heart aching. I longed to be married and to be able to stay home with my daughter. Suddenly I glanced up. The colors of the fall leaves against blue sky made me take a deep breath in wonder. Gratitude welled up inside me. I got home with a full heart. Thank you for bringing me back to the day that I learned to look up. VIOLET GRAYSON Alameda, California GIFTS OF LOVE Jessica Reed’s October…

“I believe in simple Christian values and I try to live by that. I can’t abide suffering. And that’s a Christian value, to not abide suffering.” actor JOSEPH FIENNES, who plays Clavius, a Roman military tribune investigating the resurrection of Jesus in the new movie Risen “The nice guy doesn’t finish last; the nice guy finishes blessed.” submitted by author CYNTHIA CONNER GOYANG, of Midland, Texas “A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected.” submitted by TYLER BURDICK, New York, New York “The mystery of seeking God is that he is the one who finds you.” KINGSLEY OPUWARI MANUEL, writer and musician “Ask yourself: What is the best I can do? And then do that.” from Brave Enough, by CHERYL STRAYED “Life is not a…

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 yellow onion, diced small Sea salt 2 carrots, peeled and diced small 2 celery stalks, diced small 1 medium delicata or butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into ½-inch cubes 1 teaspoon curry powder ½ teaspoon ground cumin ½ teaspoon ground turmeric ¼ teaspoon ground coriander ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon Pinch red pepper flakes 1 cup dried green lentils, rinsed well 8 cups organic vegetable broth 1 cup tightly packed kale, stemmed and thinly sliced Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and a pinch of salt and sauté until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add carrots, celery, squash and another pinch of salt. Sauté until all the vegetables are just tender, about 5 minutes. Add…

To hear the residents of the assisted-living home tell it, my 89-yearold grandmother Jane was a real-life superhero, watching over everyone from her rear garden-view room on the fourth floor. But when I asked her what everyone was buzzing about, what had happened that stormy night, she downplayed it. “I don’t want to seem boastful,” she said. “It had little to do with me.…” When you get to be a certain age, you tend to get comfortable with a routine. Every night, at seven o’clock sharp, no matter what was going on, my grandmother would go up to her room and flip on the television for her favorite show—American Ninja Warrior. I don’t know what she liked the most about watching the contestants scrambling over giant obstacles and trying to…

A CRYSTALLINE JANUARY MORNING in one of Cincinnati’s loveliest neighborhoods. I drove along, passing shops still decorated from Christmas, everything lit by clear winter light. None of it registered. All I could think about was Jack. My two-month-old son was back in the hospital, where he’d lived nearly every day since he was born. We’d brought him home less than a week earlier after doctors said there was nothing more they could do. But then he’d had the worst seizure of all. He turned blue from lack of oxygen. We called 911 and now he was in intensive care again. This drive to the hospital had become my morning commute. Jack’s seizures started hours after he was born and hadn’t stopped since. They wreaked havoc on his frail body. The…

Val Pennington (Our Breakthrough, page 50) definitely has a daddy’s girl in his adopted daughter, Dari. “She loves to hold his hands and stand on his feet to dance,” says his wife, Molly, a 2012 Guideposts Writers Workshop winner. Dari, now three and a half, loves dancing in general—in her ballet class, to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and to Disney songs. She visited Walt Disney World last spring with her mom and dad. It’s been an eventful year for the family: Dari started preschool and her big brother Dash left for college. “He managed to get a spot on the coding team, which doesn’t usually allow freshmen, and is petitioning to get a telescope for his dorm,” says Molly. In a recent blog Molly wrote, “How to Send Your…